Memorandum of Conversation with Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Foreign Minister of Belgium Paul Van Zeeland, and Homer Byington

SECURITY INFORMATION 34 UNITED STATES DELEGATION TO THE SEVENTH SESSION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY 133 MEMORANDUM OF CONVERSATION 331 October 30, 1952 341 SUBJECT: Review by M. van Zeeland of the European Situation PARTICIPANTS: Foreign Minister van Zeeland, Belgian Delegation The Secretary of State Homer M. Byington, Jr. COPIES TO: U.S.Del 7th GA Department Mr. Ross Mr. Popper Distribution to be Mr. Taylor determined by s/s. Secretary-General Reference Minister van Zeeland said that he wished to go over with the Secretary recent developments in Europe and bring to the Secretary's attention certain thoughts which he had degeloped during the past few months. First, he wished to express his growing concern that the situation in Europe was deteriorating. He felt that the Western European Governments were tending to get too far out in front of their public opinion. It was all very well to be a little in front of their public opinion, but if they got too far in front it could lead to disaster. In working toward a European Community, the Western European Governments were going too fast and might find themselves in a serious predicament. He mentioned specifi cally his own problem with reference to ratification by the Belgian parlia= ment of the European Defense Community agreement. He said that if he were to urge ratification before the French had already ratified EDC, he would run a risk of being defeated. Certainly, it was preferable in the interest of successfully creating the EDC that there should be no such development as failure of the Belgian parliament to ratify. Such a risk must be avoided. Therefore, it was most important that the Belgian parliament should not be requested to ratify until after the French parliament had taken action. He felt reasonably confident that once the French had ratified he would be suc= cessful, but he was sure the Secretary would not want him to expose the EDC to the risk of Belgian rejection by presenting it prematurely to his parlia- ment. The Secretary said that Mr. Bech had talked with him about this prob- lem last week. He appreciated Minister van Zeeland's pos ition and would give it serious thought. He would certainly not want to see ratification DECLASSIFIED of the E. O. 11652, Sec. 3(E) and 5(D) or (E) Dept. of State letter, 10.26.79 SECURITY INFORMATION By NLT HC NARS Date 11-29-76